Your Life And Mine
by This.Is.Gospel
Summary: He is Eli, she is Clare, and somehow they end up spending the night together. Now they deal with the fallout of their actions - the ups and downs of falling in love...EClare (Elie/Clare). AU.


**A/N: Mostly AU. Rating may go up...eventually. Enjoy and review please! :)**

* * *

Sometimes, she was impetuous.

She would get this rush, you could say – this sudden, inscrutable, indescribable rush of…_something, _and there was not a word for this rush. At least not in Clare Edwards' head (and Clare Edwards knew a lot of words, you see). Was it adrenaline, maybe? Exhilaration, perhaps? She wished she could tell you, honestly. She herself longed to know what it was. And almost always, this strange sensation came from a place that she reckoned to be nowhere. It was a flame latent within her, a flame that ignited without warning, without purpose. And sometimes this flame, once it was a full-blown fire ablaze, it caused her to do a thing of stupidity.

Tonight she did a thing of stupidity.

* * *

_Homecoming was a drag. It had been poorly planned out this year, the decorations were cheap, the music was typical, and the fact that all her friends had dates and she didn't only supplemented the awfulness of it all. They likely didn't even notice her sneak out, for they were so wrapped up in themselves, so consumed by the crowd of grinding bodies, by the thumping music. And if by chance they did notice her leaving, they made no attempt to stop her. That was something she'd expect though. It was something she'd grown used to. After all, Clare was always kind of an outsider in her group of friends. She was different. Her interests differed from theirs, and she didn't belong to one group in particular. She wasn't an athlete, wasn't a mathlete, wasn't goth, didn't do drugs, didn't sell drugs, and frankly, the Jesus kids were just too weird, even for her. So she'd ended up in a group of randoms. Clare had moved here only a year ago after her parents finalized their divorce, so she was still the new one in her group. She still felt like she was on the outside looking in, like she was just there rather than there, but of course, she never mentioned this to anyone._

_She walked to town. Darkness had covered the sky by now, and a familiar but welcomed breeze resonated in the air of summer. Her heels clicked against the concrete, and her light brown wisps of hair blew about her face, naturally._

_Truth be told, Clare had not a clue what she was doing in town. In the twelve months she'd lived here, it was a rarity for her to venture anywhere without company. She attended church with her mother every Sunday, occasionally went out for a meal with a friend, but never anything more than that. She preferred the solitude that only her room could provide. Friday night was a searing cup of tea and a classic novel, not going out and partying and getting drunk, high, or even both. Not only did those things contradict her faith, but she just didn't see the appeal of packing your body with toxins like that. Clare liked to be in control. She liked sobriety, she liked order, and she liked control – though she didn't feel very in control right now as she wandered along without any sense of direction._

_She kept walking._

_"You're lost," a voice insisted, and she jumped, startled._

_"I am not lost," Clare answered sternly, though she was still twisting and turning cluelessly to locate the speaker._

_A boy stepped forward, stepped out of the murky shadows of an alleyway and smirked. Clare narrowed her eyes at the stranger. He appeared to be her age, perhaps a little older. His hair was dark. Maybe it was black, maybe brown, maybe even a hue that consisted of both. It was hard to differentiate, for the street lamp suspended above them emitted dim lighting, and she couldn't even tell what color his eyes were. They seemed dark. Or maybe his pupils were just big, thus giving them that effect. Maybe he was drunk._

_Maybe she should run._

_But her thoughts dispersed when the boy walked toward her, and he kept walking toward her until their faces were merely a foot apart, if even that much. She swallowed hard. "You look pretty lost to me," the boy chuckled. "Are you from these parts?"_

_"Yes, I'm from these parts," she told him automatically. "And I'm not lost, not that it's any of your business anyways."_

_"Hey," he started, holding his hands up defensively, "I'm not trying to start anything here, and I'm not going to run off with your purse or anything like that, so stop looking so scared. Please." Clare bit down on her lower lip, chewing on it momentarily. Maybe leaving prom was a bad idea after all. Maybe she should have stayed. Obviously, maybes were prominent in her thoughts at the moment. But what she was definitely sure of was that she had to get the hell out of here, and fast. She didn't trust this boy one bit, and who knew, there was the possibility that he wasn't trouble, but her mother had instilled the notion in her brain that it was better to be safe than sorry. "I'm Eli, by the way," he finally said, breaking the silence that Clare had kind of become accustomed to. He extended a hand._

_Well, if Eli expected her to shake that hand and tell him her name as well, Eli was sorely mistaken._

_"And I'm going home," Clare replied. She turned abruptly and only got one stride far before she heard his voice reverberate from behind._

_"How far is home exactly?"_

_A scornful eye roll was her instant response, though he didn't see it because she didn't bother with spinning so she could face him. She really had no desire to see his face. "Far away from you, Eli."_

_"Woah, no need for the attitude, girl who has yet to tell me her name." Eli paused to see if she would speak up to address this issue, but when she expectedly didn't, he resumed talking. "I was purely going to ask if you needed a ride."_

_"I don't accept rides from strangers," was her sour explanation. At this point, they were standing face to face once again, just like before. (Clare wasn't quite sure how this had happened, but it happened nonetheless, and it had happened before it even registered in her head that it was happening.) They were close again. Only this time, she was burning a hole through him with a stare that was both fierce and disconcerted. She couldn't remove her eyes from his face, though she really wanted to. It was weird. The more she tried to draw herself away from him, the nearer she ended up to him, almost as if the omnipotent forces of gravity wanted her close to him for whatever reason._

_"Introduce yourself and we're no longer strangers, plain and simple. Then I can drive you home."_

_"Why are you so persistent?" she queried, cocking an eyebrow._

_Motives. He had to have motives. Everyone had motives._

_"Why are you so resistant?"_

_"I'm not resistant, I'm cautious," Clare corrected him._

_"Is there something to be cautious about? Something to be afraid of?"_

_"I'm not afraid of you," she hissed at him, knowing damn well what he was getting at, and now they were practically shouting at each other. People passing by squinted their eyes at them, furrowed their brows, pursed their lips…before ultimately ignoring the heated confrontation and carrying on with their business._

_"You're afraid of what you're feeling right now." Eli brushed his thumb against her cheek. Her skin was cold, whereas his fingers were warm. His touch was enough to ignite the fire within her. "You want me as much as I want you."_

_"I don't even know you." Her voice was barely above a whisper, and to her surprise, she didn't pull away from him. She didn't feel the need to. She…liked this. Kind of. Or maybe someone at prom had spiked her drink. Maybe she was dreaming. Maybe Eli didn't even exist, but when he leaned down to press his lips to hers gently, when she felt that spark amid the fusion of their mouths, she just knew she couldn't turn back now, dream or no dream. "Clare," she hushed against his lips._

_"Hmmm?"_

_"I'm Clare Edwards."_

_"Nice name. My place or yours?" he proposed._

_"Yours," was Clare's immediate reply. Her mom would legitimately disown her if she brought this boy home and did with him what she suspected they were going to do. And that's when it all came crashing down on her, like four walls closing in around her, for she remembered she'd never done anything like this, and Eli was probably so experienced, and he knew what he was doing, and he knew all the tricks, and she knew none of those things, and she would probably end up looking like a total idiot, and hell, she didn't even know what she was in for, and maybe…maybe it was time for her to leave and go home._

_"You ready?" he asked, breaking her train of thought._

_"Of course," she lied through a smile._

* * *

And now Clare was here, questioning how the hell something that had felt so right was in actuality so wrong, this thing of stupidity she had done. This was a sin according to her faith. They were not married. Hell, they'd just met a few hours ago. They were seventeen. Or at least she was. She didn't know how old Eli was, but she would guess seventeen or eighteen. Well technically, she didn't know anything about Eli except his name and well…how he looked underneath the all black, leather attire. She'd seen this boy…naked. She'd never seen a boy naked in her life, and just a few hours ago she let one touch her in ways that were corrupt and immoral! Shit, this really just happened, didn't it? This wasn't a dream, because if it was, she surely would have woken up by now, right? She and this…this boy just had se – nope, she couldn't think of the word, not even in the safety and seclusion of her own mind. Thinking about it made her feel guilty, made her feel queasy, like...like she'd just thrown everything away in a matter of one night's time. Her whole life, her future, her everything.

So she stopped. She stopped thinking about this stupid thing she'd done.

Clare shifted on the mattress, causing it to move underneath her. She was dressed in nothing more than these bed sheets and bathed in only the moonlight that seeped through his bedroom window. Eli was asleep, snoring lightly right now, but he hadn't been snoring lightly throughout the entirety of his slumber. He'd tossed and turned quite a lot in his sleep, talked to himself even, and her first instinct told her that she was the cause of it. She'd done something wrong, she'd ruined his life, she was a huge mistake, and so on. Clare had to leave. She had to leave now because maybe this was a mistake. Why did she keep saying maybe though? Of course this was a mistake! Eli would go back to his life tomorrow, and she to hers. They would probably never see each other again, and even if she wasn't quite alright with that now, she would learn to be alright. This was…a one night stand. She had to accept that. One. Night. Stand.

And nothing more.


End file.
